Teacher files lawsuit in Fort Gibraltar walkway collapse

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This article was published 09/04/2024 (515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A teacher injured after an elevated walkway collapsed at Fort Gibraltar last spring is suing Festival du Voyageur and the City of Winnipeg.

The lawsuit was filed in the Court of King’s Bench on March 28 by lawyers Alyssa Mariani and Sacha Paul of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP on behalf of Angelina Constantine. It is the third lawsuit filed after the May 31, 2023 incident that sent more than a dozen to hospital.

The filings name the City of Winnipeg, which owns the land the fort stands on, and Festival, which leases and operates the site, as defendants. Neither have filed statements of defence.

Constantine suffered a fracture to her thoracic spine, injuries to her neck and right foot and psychological injuries in the May 31, 2023 collapse, the suit says.

Students from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School had gone to the popular historic site and museum in Whittier Park on a field trip when they and supervising adults heard a cracking noise before two sections of a platform that ran along the edge of the fort’s walls collapsed, causing the group to fall a distance of approximately six metres.

The field trip was for 10- and 11-year-old Grade 5 students from the private academy. Officials said at the time 17 children and one adult suffered varying degrees of injury and were taken to Health Sciences Centre.

Constantine’s claim says the group was being led by a tour guide, believed to be an employee of Festival, while on the walkway.

Constantine was a teacher at the school, Mariani confirmed.

The court papers allege the collapse and her injuries were the result of Festival and the city breaching their duty or being negligent. Constantine alleges the city failed to ensure the platform was properly designed and constructed, safe and inspected in a timely manner.

The suit says the city and Festival permitted the walkway to become dangerous, failed to take reasonable steps to address unsafe conditions and failed to give warning of potentially unsafe conditions, among other allegations.

Constantine claims she has suffered lost income and ability to earn an income and medical expenses. The lawsuit also seeks punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages, as it claims the defendants knew or ought to have known about the dangers at the replica of the historic fur trading post. No dollar figure is cited in the court documents.

The parents of an 11-year-old child reportedly injured in the collapse filed suit in February against the city, Festival du Voyageur and a dining company that operated at the fort. Festival has denied legal responsibility and asked the court to toss the claim. The other defendants have not filed statements of defence.

The parents of another injured child filed a separate lawsuit in early August against Festival du Voyageur and the city, alleging the two parties were negligent and breached their duties. Both defendants denied legal responsibility in statements of defence in November.

Both of the previous lawsuits remain before the court, records show.

Festival du Voyageur announced last October it would dismantle and reconfigure the historical site.

Festival built the site, which is a replica of two earlier forts of the same name, in 1978 on city-owned land. It had been used regularly for public and private events in the time since.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca